In the construction and maintenance trades, craftsmen need quick and easy access to the self-tapping screws, drywall screws, deck fasteners and other fasteners required to complete a job. For example, a worker building an average-sized deck will have handled more than 500 fasteners by the time the project is finished. Fasteners are most commonly held in pouches hung from a work belt or stored in a plastic/cardboard container. Several difficulties arise, however, when using either a tool pouch or a container to store and retrieve fasteners.
When the worker reaches into a tool pouch to retrieve a fastener(s), his fingers may be pricked by the points of the randomly oriented screws, particularly in the case of self-tapping screws, metal screws or drywall screws. At the very least, the repeated process of retrieving these fasteners will irritate the worker's fingers. As the worker retrieves a handful of jumbled fasteners, many users will take the time to orient the heads in the same direction before they begin applying them to a work surface. This takes valuable time and slows down the application process. Finally, the jumbled fasteners often fall out of the users grasp, many with retrieve them while others simply move on.
Further, many workers spend a significant amount of time bent over or on their knees while working, which often leads to the fasteners falling out of the pouch. To counter this, workers often position the pouches behind themselves, which may prevent accidental spills, but forces the worker into an awkward position every time he reaches into the pouch. Fasteners can also fall out of a tool pouch when a user removes his tool belt and lays it down on a surface, which necessitates the need to pick them up.
Plastic buckets or cardboard boxes also present difficulties. Since buckets and boxes are stationary and not worn on the body, they require the worker to frequently relocate them so they stay within easy reach. Workers also suffer from the same painful process of having to reach into the randomly oriented fasteners in the bucket or box and pull out the required number of fasteners.
There is a need, therefore, for a dispenser that facilitates the quick retrieval of fasteners while eliminating the above-described difficulties associated with existing systems.